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Movie review: Solo: A Star Wars Story

It is perhaps unsurprising that Ron Howard venture's into a galaxy far, far away that feels more genuine in spirit, and less like an exercise machine-tooled to evoke memories and pre-existing sentiment.

The protagonist Han Solo – a rascally pilot originally played by Harrison Ford, imitated here by Alden Ehrenreich – cannot get a redemptive arc in his spin-off film. With Solo’s future sealed in previous films, we know his redemption (or quasi-redemption; the character never really betrays his bad attitude) arrives later. This lack of a ‘comes good in the end’ sweetener gives Howard’s film a compelling amorality, which is atypical of the expected Hollywood trajectory.